Do You Follow The 5-Second Rule?

We’ve all dropped that freshly buttered piece of golden brown toast on the floor, yes? And many of us have contemplated whether or not to just pick it up and eat it. That’s why there’s the 5-Second Rule, the completely unscientific belief that food left on the floor for less than five seconds is sufficiently ick-free. But scientists at Clemson are trying to call BS on one of western society’s core beliefs.

Says Paul Dawson, a food scientist at the food science and human nutrition department at Clemson University, where he and his team of students tested the Rule:

In the case of the five-second-rule we found that bacteria was transferred from tabletops and floors to the food within five seconds, that is the five second rule is not an accurate guide when it comes to eating food that has fallen on the floor.

exactly. i call it “testing my system”. also i saw a report from Univeristy of Pittsburgh that said most foods didn’t pick up measureable bacteria even after a few minutes. i’ve since adjusted by 2 sec rule to a minute and a half. no need to rush picking it up off the ground anymore.

i’m with you. my family has iron stomachs from a lifetime of eating food that was left on the counter overnight, fell on the floor, was unrefrigerated, what have you. i’ll take half-eaten food from friends, a lollipop my best friend’s kid got tired of, a sandwich my dog licked – nothing like that gets me sick anymore.

i read a really interesting book that i can’t remember the name of, that basically says if a system is in perfect balance, and always in perfect balance, and only knows that, the slightest deviation can totally destroy it. but, if over time, you teach it to accept small deviations, it’s a much stronger system that can withstand all kinds of outliers. that’s how i think of my body (within reason, of course).

I went with the great George Carlin’s idea: tempered in raw sewage. with food, I smell it, look at it, do a taste test, whatever. If it passes that, it’s fine to dig in.

Unless the floor is sticky/dirty or the object I dropped is wet/sticky, I’ll bush it off and eat it. Even then, in my own house, that’s not a hard rule. I might salvage something messy that’s fallen since I’m poor and really can’t afford to waste food. Luckily, I rarely drop much of anything.

Yeah, they found that it has a lot to do with the moisture content of whatever you drop. So a piece of roast beef might pick up something nasty, but a potato chip would probably be fine. I can’t believe this is an article considering the Mythbuster’s thing was like two or three years ago, wasn’t it?

Well, I know Grant, and to a lesser extent Jamie and Adam, and some of the production team. We all did BattleBots together about 10 years ago – Adam, Jamie and Grant were competitors, I was on the tech+safety team, and its the same production crew. It’s also ‘funny’ just how similar the pilot episode was to what we got upto in the desert when filming season2 of Battlebots in Vegas (except we used smaller-scale things)

It’s a TV show, a lot of the ‘boring stuff’ is edited out, to fit more of the ‘important stuff’ in. I wouldn’t mind getting back in TV, but I have other stuff to do as well.

And there’s all kindsa bacteria in tap water. Been drinking tap water and using the 5-second rule (unless it’s a filthy floor) all my life. Still kickin so far.

I’ve even had friends see a piece of freshly baked pound cake dropped on the ground in a parking lot. They just didn’t eat the part the touched the concrete. They said it was moist and delicious and were glad they didn’t waste it.

Once the food touches the floor, it’s done. Straight into the garbage it goes. I don’t want to risk getting sick over an M&M or some other cheap piece of food – or even just wasting the time it’d take to check for dirt/hair/etc on the consumable. My husband believes in the 5 second rule, though.

For me it depends more on whose floor I drop something on. I know what is clean and what is dirty in my house, but in a restaurant or someone else’s house I have no clue how clean it is so I ditch most foods that hit the floor.

Exactly. I’m a hiker/backpacker – I eat stuff covered in dirt. I drink muddy water with god-knows-what in it. I eat stuff well past its prime. When you’re hungry, dirt-covered hash taste like ice cream only better.

What do all these whiners think people did before every house had a freezer, people grew and butchered their own food, and there was an FDA to nanny us to death (That is, for all of human history except the last relative nano-second)?

While I voted No on this, the caveat are foods that can be rinsed off in the sink before consuming. If I drop a piece of sliced cucumber on the floor, it can be salvaged. The above example of buttered toast? In the trash bin it goes, along with a string of swearing while I attempt to wipe up the grease spot on the floor (Since the toast always lands butter-side down)

Kitteh hair is mainly the reason why the food will go in the garbage unless it’s landed on the table, or is a piece of fruit or vegetable, skin intact and uncut. I have a long hair cat, and I’d rather not have her fur in my mouth.

Even IF I clean everything, my two long hair cats, one long hair dog, and one short hair who sheds more than I can believe fill the house enough that fur ends in food. The worst is when I wake up and have a piece of hair stuck in my eye.

That said, when I was about 14 – working as a caddy, there was a BIG kid – we called him Horse. Horse got one of those nasty, in-the-plastic bag, microwaved hamburgers from the caddy master, in the caddy shack… He slathered the mustard and ketchup out of the plastic packets on to it, went to put the top bun back on, and DROPPED the burger… it fell right onto the ketchup/mustard side, on the floor of the nasty caddyshack…

He picked it up, scraped off the ketchup/mustard, added some more, and ATE THE BURGER…

41 years old and have never ate anything that has fallen on the floor that I have dropped as for from a restaurant, who the hell knows? I find it really gross that anyone would eat food that has fallen on a floor that is covered in germs and bacteria. My parents tought me to not do it and I tought my son. I myself take a drug that surpresses my imune system so I have to be extra careful but even if I didn’t I still wouldn’t eat dropped food. I also was certified by the health departmart while working selling foodservice equipment, so I have seen the bacteria and germs and molds and fungus that can grow on foods so I would recommend anyone who eats from the floor should take the class and you will never do it again.

“that is the five second rule is not an accurate guide when it comes to eating food that has fallen on the floor.”

No shit. The Five Second Rule is a joke. Literally. As in ‘ha ha, five second rule!’ It’s like ‘white line at the intersection means the stop is optional.’ It wasn’t meant to be literal, but just something to say as you pick your food up off the floor and shrug off the social stigma of eating it.

Anyway, my guidelines have to do with the exterior of the food and the material of the floor. Hard foods, like M&Ms, that can be wiped off are fine anywhere. Bread is never ok, due to it’s absorbant proerties. Carpet is a big deterrant. So grapes on the kitchen vinyl ok, grapes on carpet not ok.

Same here. As long as either surface isn’t wet and the food not porous it’s fine. Things like M&M’s… how many of us, as kids, have eaten stuff right out of our dirt laden, lint filled pockets? Wow, we survived.

What about carrots or potatoes? If they hit the floor does anyone throw them away? ;)

I’m sorry, is five seconds of sex with a stranger not cheating? If you pull your parachute five seconds after jumping out of a plan, did you not skydive? If you need actual testing and science to prove what is painfully obvious, then watch frikkin Mythbusters. They tested and busted the five second rule. Or check wikipedia or Snopes or… the INTERNET.

It depends on what the food is and how the floor is. I know when I last cleaned my kitchen floor and I know what’s been in there, so if it’s something “hard,” like a pretzel, I don’t mind eating it. If it’s something like a slice of meat or a slice of fruit (as opposed to a whole piece of fruit) or the peanut-butter side of a cracker, then no, into the trash it goes.

I care less about the germs and bacteria on the floor, and more the other, visible things that will affect the taste of my food. If I drop something and it gets hair/dirt/dust on it, eww. If I drop it and it looks fine, or I can brush off what got on it, om nom nom.

A big reason for the growth of childhood allergies is due to being overly “clean”. If your food falls on the floor, then pick it up and eat it, it won’t kill you (unless it falls into a puddle of aids or something).

Like many here, if something lands on my own floor I’m more inclined to eat it. If it’s a floor at work or other public place, I think about all the shoes that have traipsed through restrooms populated by men with poor aim, down sidewalks slick with spit and dog waste that have then walked past where I’m sitting, and I throw the food away.

Finders keepers.
If it’s something fancy, I better be fast though. My nearly blind cat loves nearly everything I do (including weird stuff for a cat like peanuts) and can hear and smell the noms in the other room so he’s around before I even open whatever noms I was having. If the cat finds it and noms it first, it’s his, if I find it first, then it’s mine.

Reminds me of a story I heard on the radio the other day. It was about this Austrian doctor/scientist (Dr Friedrich Bischinger) found that you should let kids pick their nose and eat it as it helps with their immune system.

The paper was written several years ago, and the PSA spot was posted to YouTube in November 2008. Looks like the death of newspapers is coming as a result of their lack of ability to generate new content, rather than as a result of the internet.

I feel like the 5 second rule is a reflection that we’re currently overly paranoid about food and bacteria. I’ve had friends that wouldn’t sit down in the grass because the were paranoid that they would die… of something. Showing that 5 seconds on the floor doesn’t matter really should just open it up to the 30 second rule, or the I-know-how-long-it-has-been-there rule.

As a culture, we really need to get a sense of perspective about bacteria. I assure you, licking the floor won’t make you sick. If you don’t wash all of the dirt off of your vegetables you won’t get lyme disease. Waking up with a mouth full of mud won’t make you any less healthy.

Our bodies have been dealing with bacteria for millenia. Our ancestors didn’t have boots, or sidewalks, or Corningware. Don’t eat where you poop, wash your hands, bathe regularly, etc. Those are good rules. The idea that a hot dog bun dropped on a table you washed yesterday is going to give you cancer is ludicrous. You could drop a hot dog into a sand pit, wash it off in a creek ( A moving one. Water-borne parasites happen far more regularly than kitchen-floor borne ones), eat it, and be fine.

Like scientists don’t have anything better to do like find a cure for cancer or a women’s version of Viagra?
I say if you miss the 5 second rule, invoke the 10 second rule.
I’ll bet most counter tops have as much bacteria as the floor.

The Mythbusters did this and found that if the food was wet (i.e. a piece of salami), it seemed to collect more gunk and germs than a dry piece (a cracker). So if I butter a cracker and it falls on the floor, no, I won’t eat it. If I drop the cracker alone and my floor isn’t all that grotty, I’ll blow it off and eat it.

I’m still alive! Although eating buttered crackers will probably kill me eventually anyway.

Yes–if it was a Baby Ruth candy bar accidentally dropped into a crowded swimming pool, causing a mass exodus a la Jaws, and only after draining the pool, dressed in full hazmat attire and only if the water was chlorinated.

Unless it’s visibly dirty, the only reason I throw away dry food that fell on the floor is out of a sense of decorum if other people are around. “Five second rule!” is just an excuse to your buddies for eating that M&M you dropped.

Bacteria are transfered quickly, but who cares? There are bacteria all over my skin all the time, and floating in the air, and on every non-floor surface I touch. Are there dangerous bacteria on the average floor, in numbers sufficient to make me sick? No! So I see no reason I should worry.

I reject the entire premise of the article: if something has detectable levels of bacteria on it, it’s not “safe” to eat. I like the give my immune system some real work to do to distract it from attacking me.

If a dropped food is dry I’ll eat it. If it’s wet and can be rinsed, I’ll rinse and eat it. If it’s wet and can’t be rinsed, I throw it out. Hell, I’ll even eat food that I drop in the (bag-lined) trash can, depending on what else is already in there. If it’s just fresh vegetable peelings and plastic packaging, we’re good to go!

I may eat dropped food, but not because of the so-called “5 second rule.” I may do it because my immune system is up to the task. Making everything sanitary and bacteria-free is hurting us, not helping us.

This question was answered in great detail via testing on “MYTHBUSTERS.”
ALL tests showed IMMEDIATE bacterial, etc., attachment.
Can result in illnesses in the future, not just in next couple of days.
Sure changed the way our family members think.

It’s not a BELIEF! It’s a JOKE! There is a DIFFERENCE! In my mind it has always been sarcastic, you joke the food is clean because of the short duration of contact with the floor. But if you eat it, you do so out of indifference to the dirt you know the food picked up.

You guys are gonna be screwed when the apocalypse comes. As a society, we’ve all become so delicate and pampered. Our ancestors ate food a lot less sanitary than we have now and had stronger immune systems. There are also many places in the world where people eat much less food that is much less sanitary than we do. If someone from Somalia saw you throw away a cracker that fell on the floor, they would think you were a moron. Will you ingest a few extra germs or microbes? Of course. But under most circumstances (ok, not restaurant floors), especially in your own home, the ethics of not wasting food outweigh the mostly imagined ick factor.

The survey should differentiate between food dropped at different locations.

If I drop it at home and it’s not something sticky, then sure, I’ll eat it. It’s all my germs anyways. If I drop it in the breakroom at work or in a public restaurant, no way. If I drop it on the floor of my cubicle/office at work, yeah I’ll eat it.

I do it, depending on the food. I mean really if it is a dry food and there is no dirt, sure I’ll go for it. If it is like pudding or something wet then nah it’ll be trash. If it is like a candy bar where just part of it got a little dirty I’ll break it off and eat the rest. I mean it is candy.

You’ve got it all wrong: it is x seconds before you have to *eat* it (x seconds determined by how long it takes for the pathogen mass to grow to a critical mass, assuming we are not looking at the case of accidently injesting a pile of arsenic left on the floor, like so much candy sprinkle, in which case time, again, would not matter…assuming we are not talking about soaking up a puddle of mercury). How long it remains on the floor is immaterial, right? The pathogen transfer rate would follow a declining exponential, wouldn’t it? Likewise the area of surface that the foodstuff is exposed to would be as least as great a determinant than total time spent on the surface, wouldn’t it? So did it bounce, slide, or did you pick it up with a swirl? And lastly, there does seem to be emerging evidence that avoiding all possible pathogens in any quantity is not ‘safe’ in the long-term, isn’t there? So isn’t both the premise and the rule of thumb, as applied, in doubt?

The ground has lots of dirt… but look through some of those studies – they invariably find less germs/bacteria/spores on the floor than on counters, hands, doorknobs, TV remotes, etc. I don’t know that I’d encourage eating dropped food, but if you ever drink from a water fountain, ride in an airplane, eat off a picnic table, or even use many restaurant utensils, you’ve exposed yourself to far worse (and are still probably fine).

For me, the 5-second rule is not based on science – it’s based on how icky I think it would be to pick up food that fell on the floor and eat it. Meaning if a piece of food has been on the ground for an hour, that’s pretty gross. If it’s 10 seconds, then it’s not as icky.

It depends a lot on the food (if it’s wet then it’s more likely to attract dirt/dust/hair), if you can wash it, and the floor. If it falls on concrete outside, I’m just tossing it. If it’s on my laminate (fake hardwood floors), then I will probably pick it up and eat it. Also, if it’s one french fry out of a tray, then I’m less likely to eat it. If it’s my sandwich, you can bet I’ll try to salvage it.

“we found that bacteria was transferred” is a little generic… what kinds of bacteria, and in what amounts? There are many harmless bacteria out there, and in small amounts many others will be harmless.

The only foods that you can use the five second rule on are raw fruits and vegetables. They have a washable/removable skin and they’ve already been around dirt and bugs, so the floor wouldn’t make it any worse.

Hell, if anything in the kitchen hits the floor, I won’t use it. Utensils get a rinse then washed, dishcloths go in the laundry, and a paper towel roll heads to the cleaning closet.

There’s bacteria floating around in the fucking air too. The thing these tests never point out is that the presence of bacteria does NOT equal the presence of HARMFUL bacteria. Drop something on the floor, it gets bacteria on it. That does not mean you are going to contract an awful disease and die. Like they say, God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt. If I drop something on the floor and don’t eat it it’s because it got gunk/dirt/goo on it, not because I’m worried about “bacteria.”

This is too vague. I will use the rule on hard, dry, non-porous things. A just-dropped M&M is fine, particularly if I catch it on the first bounce. Using the 5 second rule on buttered bread that landed butter-side-down (which it always does) is like eating a used mop.

One of my students did a science fair project on this. He found if the item is moist in anyway then forget it, but dry items didn’t pick up anything. Ex if your buttered toast lands butterside down, trash it. But if it is dry toast hitting dry ground, you should be fine.

IIRC, I read that a student had done their thesis on the similar 10-second rule. He found that if there was anything on the floor to transfer to the food, it happend pretty much right away. No matter how quickly the item was picked up.

I follow the 5 second rule, but never actually believed that the food wouldn’t get germs. I just don’t care if it gets germs. I am not a germ freak and appreciate that it builds my immune system. Nomnomnom.